The hulls of ships, the surfaces of pilings, and other objects subjected to the activity of seawater inevitably become encrusted with various forms of marine life.
The marine life which cause the greatest problem are the crustaceous formations, such as barnacles, attaching themselves to the hulls of ships to cause a significant reduction in the speed with which the ship travels through the water. Among the many developments in this field are antifouling paints that inhibit the growth of such crustaceons, e.g. by incorporating mercury compounds in the paint to produce a toxic effect on the crustaceons. These materials however are pollutants that might cause undesirable effects on fish and other seafood which are eaten by humans. Furthermore, many of the available antifouling paints are effective for only a short period of time necessitating scraping and refinishing at frequent intervals in order to provide the desired protection.
In accordance with the present invention a new composition has been discovered which provides antifouling protection more effectively and for longer periods of time than has been known in the past. Since the expense of removing a ship from the water, scraping its hull, and repainting at frequent intervals is significant, it is an important improvement to provide a coating material which will minimize the downtime of the ship and that expenditure of money.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved antifouling coating composition. It is another object of this invention to provide a method for preventing the growth of marine life on surfaces below sea water by applying to that surface a coating having an effective amount of a novel antifouling agent. It is another object of this invention to provide an antifouling agent which can be added to paint to produce an improved antifouling coating composition. Still other objects will be apparent from the more detailed description of this invention which follows.